Maeve from cheating her of the kill, she had to talk to Alasdair again and make an agreement. Maybe then she could make sure that Maeve didn’t cheat her.
Maybe not.
“I have to assess which dragon shifter offers the best opportunity,” she said, dropping her gaze as if in deference. The truth was that she didn’t want Maeve to notice her defiance.
“There’s another blacksmith,” the Dark Queen noted. “I know you dislike them.”
“He might expect me,” Rania said, doubting that was true. “I have to do my research.”
“Don’t dally too long,” Maeve said. “Tomorrow night, we dine on swan.” The court cheered and a number of Fae poked at the swans trapped in the cage. Rania knew her brothers were agitated and she didn’t blame them. She’d worked all these centuries to secure their freedom, and Maeve had changed the deal.
It was exactly as Hadrian had warned her.
And he was dead, unable to witness that his prediction had come true.
She looked at her brothers, remembering Hadrian’s questions about them, and wondered why she hadn’t ever sought them out. Why hadn’t she talked to them or made a connection? She’d always been alone, but she’d also repeatedly chosen to be alone.
What if this was her chance to choose differently?
What the world needed was more of Hadrian and his lineage. Rania suddenly had a ghost of an idea about the kiss of death but she couldn’t think about it while she stood before the Dark Queen. Her actions had to come as a surprise.
“As you command, my queen,” she said, bowing before Maeve’s throne as rebellion burned hotter in her heart.
Then she wished to be with Hadrian and vanished from the Fae court.
It was darker than dark.
Hadrian couldn’t see anything in any direction. He couldn’t feel anything around him or sense the presence of any other being. It was strange. Even in his human form, he was always aware of the pulse of another creature at a distance or the faint sound of movement. Now there was nothing. He couldn’t tell whether it was cold or hot either. He stood on something firm, but had no idea whether it was just a single spot or continued, like ground, underfoot. If he took a step, would he fall into a void?
He was in his human form and tried to shift, but couldn’t. There wasn’t even a shimmer of blue light, let alone the familiar sense of the tidal wave of transformation sweeping through him.
Was he dead? If he wasn’t Pyr anymore, Hadrian wasn’t sure he wanted to be alive.
Even the familiar tinge of cold that was always at the periphery of his awareness was gone. He could always feel that the ice and snow were there, just awaiting his summons. No longer.
Hadrian could move, at least. He brushed his right hand over his left wrist and was relieved that he couldn’t feel a string there. He’d take the good news where he could find it.
He wasn’t relieved that his fingers seemed to slide right through his arm, as if he’d become insubstantial.
Or a ghost.
He didn’t hear his heart beating or feel his lungs filling with air. He couldn’t exactly feel whatever was beneath his feet but when he stamped a foot, he heard a faint sound of impact.
He didn’t feel it, though.
Being dead was a definite possibility, given what he remembered of Maeve’s visit. He couldn’t smell smoke or iron, and knew he wasn’t in his lair or studio anymore. There was no light of the firestorm, so either Rania was gone or the firestorm had been extinguished, unsatisfied.
An opportunity lost forever.
He pivoted in place, trying to peer into the distance, but it was all black.
He wasn’t going to just stand in one place for eternity, though.
Hadrian took a step. He was reassured that whatever supported him seemed to continue, so he took another. Then he took a third step and, convinced that he was on some level surface, he began to walk, gradually increasing his speed.
He didn’t know how long he walked or how far—he was starting to wish he’d counted his footsteps—when a faint glimmer of light appeared in the distance. He stopped, wondering whether his eyes were deceiving him, but the light remained there. It was golden and moving, like a shifting cloud. He had no idea what it was.
Since he had exactly nothing left to lose, Hadrian walked toward the light.
As he drew nearer, he realized that he was seeing a cluster of individual golden lights, each one on the